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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where did Walter Benjamin keep a library?
(a) Paris.
(b) Tokyo.
(c) Washington, D.C.
(d) Frankfurt.

2. Which is NOT one of the subjects written about by George Orwell?
(a) The Spanish Civil War.
(b) The threat of fascism.
(c) The American Revolution.
(d) The Great Depression.

3. Who wrote "Walking"?
(a) Seymour Krim.
(b) Phillip Lopate.
(c) Kenko.
(d) Henry David Thoreau.

4. Who wrote "An Apology for Idlers?"
(a) Robert Louis Stevenson.
(b) Plutarch.
(c) Maria Edgeworth.
(d) George Orwell.

5. Who wrote "How to Start to Write?"
(a) Carlos Fuentes.
(b) Ivan Turgenev.
(c) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(d) Walter Benjamin.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who wrote "Leaving the Movie Theater?"

2. What title did Thurber give to his humorous autobiographical essay?

3. Which of the following is NOT a well-known story written by Robert Louis Stevenson?

4. Under what circumstances did Walter Benjamin die?

5. What was George Orwell's real name?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the important events in Lu Hsun's life that impacted his personal essays.

2. What is Orwell's "Such, Such Were the Joys..." about? What complaints does Orwell have about the subject?

3. What two works of G. K. Chesterton are included in this volume? What are the subjects of these essays?

4. M.F.K. Fisher is known for writing primarily about what subject? Beyond this subject, what biographical details has she confronted in her writing?

5. What kind of literature did Virginia Woolf write? What was a common focus that united her work?

6. What is Jose Luis Borges' perspective on his own increasing blindness, as revealed in his essay "Blindness?"

7. What are the particulars of Ivan Turgenev's "The Execution of Tropmann"?

8. What is the subject of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Crack-Up?" What extended metaphor does he use?

9. What is the subject of Junichiro Tanizaki's "In Praise of Shadows?" What hope does Tanizaki express at the end of the essay?

10. What views is Henry David Thoreau well known for? How did he believe one should live one's life?

(see the answer keys)

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